The brand new policeman ‘s the third light kid in the gamble. He gets in which have Ma Rainey, Sylvester, and Dussie Mae and you may engages in a screaming meets using them to share with Irvin the story away from Ma’s automobile accident. Sooner, he is satisfied that Rainey is actually “as important as she claims she actually is” and you can takes money from Irvin to help you your investment experience rather than grab Ma to prison.

Ma Rainey

Wilson’s Ma Rainey is based on the fresh new historic Ma Rainey, generally said to be the caretaker of one’s Organization on account of the lady effect on most other girls organization vocalists. Produced Gertrude Pridgett for the Columbus, Georgia, during the 1886 to help you mothers who have been minstrel painters, Rainey first checked onstage in the 1900. She toured having William “Pa” Rainey, a good minstrel song and dance man just who she married inside 1904, with groups such Tolliver’s Circus and Songs Extravaganza. Rainey finalized a recording contract into “competition office” out-of Paramount Information for the 1923, when she was thirty-7 years of age.